In this release

Report on fertility patterns in the UK for UK born and non-UK born mothers in the period 2007-2011. Includes investigation of fertility patterns at the country level, and also of specific non-UK maternal countries of birth.

The key points are summarised:

There were 808,000 births in the UK in 2011, composed of 612,000 births to UK born women and 196,000 births to non-UK born women.

24 per cent of births in 2011 were to non-UK born women, an increase of two percentage points since 2007. This increase is caused by a 24 per cent rise in the number of women of childbearing age who were born outside the UK and a fall of 5 per cent in the number of UK born women of childbearing age since 2007.

Fertility rates for non-UK born women are higher than for UK born women, with the non-UK born Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (2.28 children per woman) being 0.4 births per woman higher than the UK born TFR (1.89 children per woman) in 2011, but the differences are narrowing over time. The convergence is caused by an increase in the UK born TFR and a decrease in the non-UK born TFR since 2007.

Poland is the most common non-UK maternal country of birth in the UK, with around 23 thousand births in 2011. It is the most common in each of the four UK countries and in London, reflecting the wide geographical distribution of women born in Poland.

The report looks at the top five non-UK born mothers' countries by number of births (Poland, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nigeria). GFRs for the UK show that women born in Pakistan have the highest fertility rates of the five individual maternal countries of birth examined, with around 180 births per thousand women in 2011, compared with around 60 births per thousand for UK born women.

The impact of non-UK born women on fertility is largest in London. This is due to a high proportion of the childbearing age population in London being non-UK born, and lower UK born fertility in London than the UK average.

These National Statistics are produced to high professional standards and released according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.